


A Land Without Magic: Missing Scenes

by Temo



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-22
Updated: 2012-05-23
Packaged: 2017-11-05 19:32:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/410197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Temo/pseuds/Temo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short important moments ABC forgot to show in the Finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She's pulled away from Henry’s bedside unceremoniously. Dr. Whale pressing her with questions, not listening when she told him it was the damned turnover. She viciously grabbed Henry’s backpack, shaking it as if it were to blame.

“This isn’t a poisoning…It’s like…” He didn’t finish his thought, turning away from her.

Back to Henry. 

A candy bar, walkie talkie, a few action figures, textbooks and a notebook spilled out before her. And the book. That damned book. Emma looked at it as if she’d never truly seen it before. “It’s like magic.” She finishes for the Doctor. Grasping the book, electricity shoots through her. Images, they can’t be memories, flash rapidly though her mind. Mary Margaret and David crying over a baby. David wounded placing the baby in a wardrobe. No, that wasn’t right, not Mary Margaret, not David. Henry’s words reverberate. “Everything that happened in this book is true. You should know better than anyone, because you’re in this book.”

“My Son!” Regina’s panicked cry abruptly returns her to the present. But everything is different now. Her eyes narrow. She drops the book, “You did this.” She hisses, before grabbing Regina and dragging her into a supply closet. “YOU DID THIS!” She’s yelling now, losing control.

“What? What are you…” Regina’s confusion and fear seems real, but it changes nothing.

“Henry ate that turnover.” Her nose is barely an inch from Regina's, fisting her silk blouse, pinning her against the metal shelving.

“It was meant for you!” Regina admits stupidly. Off her game, not a good sign.

“It’s true isn’t it? The book, the curse, it’s all true.” Emma demands, never expecting acknowledgement, even though she knows now, as surely as she knows how to breathe, that she is right.

“Yes.” 

“Fix him!” She’s begging the Evil Queen.

“I can’t!” Is the tearful, unexpected reply.

Emma’s eyes grow wide, suddenly her anger is replaced with overwhelming fear. “You don’t have Magic?” 

“Emma?” Mary Margaret rushes in, looking confused and concerned. “What’s going on, what happened to Henry?”

A thousand years ago, when her son collapsed, she had dialed 911 on the landline. With her other hand she’d hit speed-dial, her roommate, her best friend. When her the voicemail picked up, the old Emma blathered out something about Henry, apples, Regina and how she was so, so scared and could Mary please, please come, because she needed…her.

Emma can’t afford to think too much, her son’s life and her own sanity are at stake here. Coherent thought has left her. 

“Emma?” Mary Margaret repeats. “Mayor?”

“Henry’s ill Ms. Blanchard.” Regina manages. “If you’ll excuse us, we were having a private conversation.”

“I’m, I’m sorry, but I’m here for Emma, and I’m not going anywhere until I know she’s okay.” Her mother answers.

No, no, there isn’t time for this. There isn’t time. “Ma..Mary. Henry’s really sick, can you, can you stay with him?”

“Me?” 

“Her?” Regina and Mary Margaret say together, both clearly confused.

“We…Regina and I have to go. We’ll be back soon, but I…I don’t want him to be alone, I don’t ever want him to be alone again. Please?”

It’s impossible to say what’s more confusing about this request. The fact that Regina isn’t objecting loudly, or the fact that either woman would be willing to leave the boy they love in this condition. “Of course, Emma, anything you need.”

And Emma starts to cry again. “Thank you.” She whispers. Mary Margaret smiles awkwardly, moving forward, no doubt to give her friend a reassuring hug. Emma pulls back. It’s a risk she can’t take. Dissolving into her mother’s arms will not help anything. Hurt flashes in Mary Margaret’s eyes…but she understands, Emma’s never been one for affection, and they haven’t been getting along so well of late. She offers a weak smile and a nod to the oddly quiet Mayor. 

“Hurry back. He needs you. Both of you.” She offers charitably, thinking perhaps a truce is in the air and really that’s probably best for Henry. 

The silence when she departs is painful. Emma slaps away her tears and turns with a renewed hate to Regina. “What do we do now?”


	2. An Abandon Building, A Sword, and A Dolt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma has a brief encounter before slaying the dragon.

Emma paces in front of the Library. Funny, she’d never questioned the building before. Why did this large building stand shuttered in the center of town? Emma actually liked libraries as a kid, when she could get to one. She’d been a strong reader early on, but it wasn’t just the books she liked. Libraries offered Foster Parents favorite things. Free stuff. Computers, games, storytimes, a place to dump your kid and pretend you were nurturing them, when in fact you just couldn’t be bothered. And that suited Emma just fine, because libraries offered Foster Kids favorite things, too, peace. They weren’t always quiet, but if you kept your head down, no one bothered you. Henry would love a place like that and Regina really should too, if only for appearances. So why was it nothing more than an eye sore?

She shakes the thought from her head. Her son was dying, her world inside out, upside down, and cobblywhampus besides. And, and she had a sword. WTF?

“Emma?” God no, no, no, no! Please let it be a hallucination. “Hey, glad I caught you.”

She turns to the voice, not daring to raise her eyes. He doesn’t seem to notice she’s off, which is really good, because this needs to be over soon.

“Hey, um David, this isn’t really a good time.”

“Yeah, I know, I heard about Henry. I’m so sorry hon. He’ll be okay though, you have to believe that.”

He needs to leave, she needs him gone, now he tells her to believe, now she’s his ‘hon’? She spins away, hoping he’ll take the hint, but while in the storybook he is simply Charming, in Storybrooke he’s simply a dolt. She moves too fast and stumbles on her forgotten baggage, the literal kind.

“Is that a sword?” He asks, clearly perplexed.

“What? This?” She shrugs unconvincingly, whilst trying to push it further behind her.

“Emma, are you okay?”

She never thought she’d be so relieved to hear the rapid tapping of Mayor Mills Stilettos. “David?”

“Hi Regina, um, look I just wanted to say…” He peters off, he’d felt compelled to say goodbye to Emma, to offer her his support, though he didn’t have a good reason to. It wasn’t as if they were friends. Actually, he was fairly certain Emma hated him for his lousy treatment of Mary Margaret. He admired her for it really. And maybe it was just the anguish on Mary’s face as she listened Emma’s voicemail earlier that made him want to comfort her now. Maybe it was the way she looked so small and alone like a lost child that made him feel the need to protect her. 

“I’m afraid Sheriff Swan and I have some rather pressing business to attend to. If you’ll excuse us please.” Emma’s grudgingly impressed with Regina’s false cool.

“Pressing business? At the Library? When your kid…” he’s positively incredulous.

“Don’t, don’t go there.” Emma interrupts, suddenly, irrationally angry at this man. “Obviously this is important or we wouldn’t be here.” She grinds out.

He looks…well wounded. “Of course, I’m sorry.”

Regina removes the padlock, gesturing for Emma to enter. She does without so much as a backward glance. The Mayor gives him a dismissive nod, follows Emma in and closes the doors on him.

He stands there briefly. Finally giving up on hope that Emma will return, asking for his assistance. “I just wanted to say goodbye.”


End file.
